


Dinner

by Misza_07



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Claire POV, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 03, Troll Jim Lake Jr., estabilished relationship - Freeform, there are mentions of other characters, toasecretsanta2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misza_07/pseuds/Misza_07
Summary: When Jim became half-troll, he stopped enjoying human food. This is a short story in which our Trollhunter discovers new tastes and learns his favourite things once again and Claire learns how to support her troll boyfriend and help him with that.
Relationships: Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Comments: 15
Kudos: 136





	Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is not perfect, but thanks to my friend it probably doesn't have a lot of mistakes, because she checked it for that. She also liked it, so I hope it's readable.  
> I wrote this story for ToA Secret Santa on tumblr as a gift for bluawy who wanted just some Jlaire fluff (so it's not even about Christmas), so you can also find it there, on my tumblr. It only took me a while to get myself to post it on ao3 as well.

Claire isn’t very good at cooking. She isn’t terrible, she’s not the “can burn even water” type of person. No, the food she makes is edible. But she doesn’t feel very confident about that - especially since the other person who cooks is Jim.

Jim’s cooking is the best, despite him not being able to savour his own cooking anymore. He still has years of experience and knew exactly what to do to make everything perfect for any human. Claire lets herself tease him that this is the reason they are still together. Jim then raises his hand to his chest dramatically and pretends to be hurt. Now she does it after trying some bolognese he was making. Jim wipes a nonexistent tear from his cheek.

“If this is the case, I will not stop you from achieving your dreams. I won’t be an obstacle between you and the true love of your life,” he sighs theatrically, gesturing at the pot full of sauce.

“Then so be it. This bolognese at least won’t be eating cutlery,” she teases.

“I am so not appreciated here,” Jim scoffs, turning away from her.

Claire laughs, but then huggs Jim from behind and ruffles his hair.

At first Claire didn’t bother asking about what exactly went into his food. At the very beginning she thought she didn’t even have to know, especially after she saw Jim sniffing a pencil, shrugging and breaking it into little pieces he threw into the cake batter. But then, after giving it some thought, she realized that it must be terrible for Jim - that to him her disinterest might mean that she doesn’t accept his troll part, which wasn’t true. So she started to sit with him even more when he was cooking, especially for himself, saw what he was adding to his meals and began asking how it tasted for him. On one evening, she made them both sit at the table and apologized for her previous behaviour. At first Jim got nervous and tried to shrug it off, saying that it wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t mind. Then they talked longer and Claire finally got Jim to admit that it was much nicer when Claire showed that she cared. The biggest change happened when they were baking a cake together. Or two cakes, to be precise. Well, mostly Jim was baking. She was helping of course, but Jim was the one to rule in the kitchen and tell Claire what to do. The only area where Claire can rule is preparing guacamole.

And then, as Jim was wondering what to throw into his part of cake, Claire jumped up from the chair when she was sitting and ran off, grabbing a bag full of things she bought earlier. Colourful paper clips, staples, packets of sequins and various buttons - some more classic, having one colour and two or four dots, some being more fancy, decorated with patterns, material or shaped like flowers. Also glitter. Like, a small bucket of glitter.

“We can try how it all tastes like to you and then you can decide which ones you want to add. I mean, I won’t be eating this so I wasn’t sure what you’d like, but I observed what you were eating earlier and decided that these are worth a try,” she explained, feeling very stupid.

But Jim was so happy, he almost cried and he hugged her so hard she thought she wouldn’t be able to ever catch a breath again. Then they sat at the table and laid out all the stuff Claire bought and he tried them all.

“Paper clips are classic, I’ve ate them before,” he said. “But these are cooler, this plastic, colourful layer on the outside adds something more smooth to the taste. It’s hard to explain,” he said, putting the box of clips aside. “Buttons are also cool. I might or might have not eaten a few of those spare ones you are sometimes given when you buy a new shirt,” he explained, sending Claire an apologetic look. She only smiled at him.

“It’s not like I would have ever used them anyway,” she pointed out.

“Right. That’s what I thought. Anyway, so buttons are cool, but I’ve only ever eaten classic ones. The ones that are decorated with fabric are less crunchy, sort of… Salty?” he rubbed his neck, avoiding her gaze and struggling to explain. “The shaped ones are awesome. Their taste is sweet and heavenly and I bet they look better on the cake.”

“What about sequins and glitter?” Claire asked. She was especially curious about those two.

“I don’t know, I’ve never eaten any of the shiny stuff before, so I’m gonna try it now,” Jim answered, smiling at her and shoving a spoonful of sequins into his mouth. “Oooooh, this is good! Like… Like crunchy and sort of sweet, but also sour?”

“I have no idea where sequins can have the potential to be sour,” Claire laughed, rolling her eyes.

“They have a LOT of potential, thank you very much,” Jim answered, grabbing the packet protectively. “No, but I'm serious. Thank you Claire. It… It means a lot to me. I mean, I know it’s just me eating stupid sequins, but still.”

“It’s not stupid. You need to eat, you know.”

“I know, I know. Okay. Time for glitter.”

Glitter turned out to be “something between sugar, cinnamon and ginger” which Jim seemed very happy about. They baked their two cakes, one for humans and one for trolls. And, as Claire and Toby were later eating their normal cake, she couldn’t help but smile, seeing Jim, Blinky and AAARRRGGHH relishing their troll version. “Paper clip and glitter cake,” as Jim called it when taking it out of the oven and grinning at her.

Then it became their routine. Claire would often buy something new and Jim would try it and give her feedback. And she didn’t have a problem when having to dispose of her old credit card.

“It is like the absolute best dessert. I have no idea what is even in there, but Claire, you should totally get rid of your cards more often,” Jim said then, after sniffing the card and taking a bite.

After a while, she learned his tastes and could usually more or less predict whether he was going to like something or not and how it could taste to him - despite never being able to taste these things herself. It’s not like she wanted to eat paper clips, but it would be helpful to know exactly what to look for when picking something new for Jim. But, both of them had some difficulties. Jim couldn’t taste human food anymore and he still was the best at cooking.

Even know, this bolognese. Claire’s was obviously spaghetti and tomato sauce with minced meat, but Jim’s? Boiled shoelaces (“they are softer and better warm, Claire”), sauce… Well, she guessed it did contain some tomatoes. As well as red paint, erasers and adhesive gum - the very same one she used to stick a poster to the wall two days before. They sat at the table, each one content with their own plate.

And if Claire had to be honest? She wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
